If you could meet any fighter in history and.......?????

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 18 Oct 2005, 12:38

If you could meet any one fighter in history and ask him three questions which he would would have to answer honestly, who would be the fighter be and what would the three questions be?

Ezzard · Post by **Ezzard** » 18 Oct 2005, 12:53

Jack Dempsey

1. Was there anything untoward in your defeat of Willard?
2. Why didn't the fight with Wills happen?
3. If you could go back in time would you have insisted upon giving black fighters a fair crack at the title?

wlvrne · Post by **wlvrne** » 18 Oct 2005, 12:57

Marvin Hagler
1) How did you get started in boxing?
2) Why didn't you campaign for a re-match against Leonard more vocally? Like publicly calling him out like alot of fighters doing today.
3) Are you in any way involved in boxing, like a trainer? I'm sure alot of young boxers would like to have you train them.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 · Post by **BrocktonBlockbuster49** » 19 Oct 2005, 01:36

vitali klitschko

- did u quit against bryd because your a pussy?

no jk

roberto duran

- what was the real reason u quit against leonard??

sonny liston

- did you take a dive against ali
- were u paid to lose the first fight
- how did u really die, was it really suicide????

BrocktonBlockbuster49 · Post by **BrocktonBlockbuster49** » 19 Oct 2005, 01:53

if i got to pick anyone though it would probably be dempsey

dempsey has so many unaswered questions to answer

barry · Post by **barry** » 19 Oct 2005, 03:45

Sam Langford...I would love to have a time machine to follow his entire career!

robert.snell1 · Post by **robert.snell1** » 19 Oct 2005, 06:34

well the obvious one for me would have been able to see my dad in the ring and see what he was like all those years ago - 1920's -

He would have met some of the great fighters of the day in the UK , Canada and the US so to use the British phrase , being a fly on the wall, to listen in on the conversations - Barry and his time machine - would have been a true joy.

One of his best friends was Jack Reddick who came up against harry greb and as far as i am aware dad was present at the fight so it would be lovely to ask

What do you think dad about those guys

the other thing was to do with Ad Wolgast...dad had a go with his brother johnny so the question would be to johnny

" Ever had a fight with your kid"

another would be to do with dad's fight with Chief halftown

"Did you pluck his feathers"

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 19 Oct 2005, 06:54

Jack Johnson- What was it like to fight with all the racism surrounding you?
Are you dissapointed you never gave McVey and Langford title shots?

Sonny Liston - Why weren't you at your best against Ali? Were they fixed? And how did you really die?

Rocky Marciano and Jim Jeffries - How did you absorb that amount of punishment? Did you ever feel like quitting in a fight?

And finally to the Rock - Could you really carry Larry Holmes' jockstrap?

The last ones a joke

kick asner · Post by **kick asner** » 19 Oct 2005, 08:32

I would like to ask all fighters who held one of the titles such as th WBA, WBC, or any other such title.
Why didn't you do everything in your power to unify the title?
If their answer was they tried and couldn't make it happen I would ask.
Then why didn't you take on the entire boxing establishment?
If the answer was I did but to no avail I would ask.
Then why didn't you do all in your power to expose this charade for what it was and force them to come out publicy and offer an explanation for why this type of a system exist and who's idea it was?

Rory McCloskey · Post by **Rory McCloskey** » 19 Oct 2005, 18:52

hmm gee this is really hard...

I would ask Braddock...

1) what was it like waking up at 3am every morning to go search for jobs, and keep your family off the streets, and how did u find the will to carry on...
2) did u really think that you could win and keep winning after the Corn Griffin fight?
3) What was it like on june 14 1935, the night after the fight, the day you realized you had beaten the depression and that you had secured your family?

dws · Post by **dws** » 19 Oct 2005, 19:54

Greb.I'd ask him a million questions about his career and all the great champs he fought then go drink some of that prohibition liquor.

AndreWardFan2006 · Post by **AndreWardFan2006** » 20 Oct 2005, 07:13

I would ask Muhammad Ali -

1. "What exactly were you saying to Ken Norton when he broke your jaw?"

2. "Do you believe, like many others, that the 3rd meeting between you and Frazier was the fight where "brain damage" was sustained?"
and

3. "What exactly was said during the heated argument with the Rock after the computerized fight between you two?" When the Rock apparently put The Greatest on his ass in the 8th round by TKO.

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 22 Oct 2005, 08:18

robert.snell1 wrote:One of his best friends was Jack Reddick who came up against harry greb and as far as i am aware dad was present at the fight so it would be lovely to ask

What do you think dad about those guys

Rob, I'm very impressed your dad may have saw Greb fight, in the flesh. That is very, very cool.

As for myself

Three fighters with one question each.

(1) Sonny Liston - Did you take a dive against Ali?
(2) Aaron Pryor - What was really in that little black bottle?
(3) Tyson - Did your really want to fight Foreman?

Rory McCloskey · Post by **Rory McCloskey** » 22 Oct 2005, 12:14

2) Aaron Pryor - What was really in that little black bottle?

is there a story behind this? sounds interesting.

Rory McCloskey · Post by **Rory McCloskey** » 22 Oct 2005, 13:23

hmm when did all of this happen?

Syntax Error · Post by **Syntax Error** » 22 Oct 2005, 14:13

Evander Holyfield:-

1 - What was going through your mind when Tyson bit your ear the first time; did you think you could finish the fight?

2 - Do you really believe that you deserved a draw against Lewis in the first fight?

3 - Why are you still fighting?

BrocktonBlockbuster49 · Post by **BrocktonBlockbuster49** » 22 Oct 2005, 16:57

i would defintely like to ask ali

1 were u dropped by a body shot from 46 year old rocky marciano??

2 IF NOT, was it true mrciano hurt u with body shots so badly that u refused to continue the sparring unless u were paid an additional $ 2000

Rory McCloskey · Post by **Rory McCloskey** » 23 Oct 2005, 01:07

hey BB were u been latley man?

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 23 Oct 2005, 11:57

Rory McCloskey wrote:hmm when did all of this happen?

Here are some quotes.

Carlos "Panama" Lewis is a well-known and highly controversial boxing trainer who achieved his greatest notoriety in the 1980s.

Lewis was a trainer for several highly-rated boxers in the early 1980s, the most noted of which was light-welterweight champion Aaron Pryor. At the same time, he was already gaining a reputation for questionable tactics, one which became worse when he gave Pryor a now-legendary "black bottle" containing an unknown substance during his 1982 clash with Alexis Arguello at a crucial moment of the fight. After drinking from the bottle, a tired Pryor made a remarkable recovery and scored a knockout over Arguello.

During the first Pryor vs Arguello classic fight in 1982 during the break between the 13th and 14th round in Pryors corner his trainer Lewis was heard to to his assistant, say something like "Pass me the bottle, the special one I mixed". He then made Pryor take a drink from this little black bottle. The faiding Pryor then stormed out in the 14th round and stopped Arguello.

Nobody (as in fansm officials etc) knows for sure what was in that bottle. One theory was it was just a mix of snaps, sugar and peppermint. Others claim it was a liquid containing cocaine. I understand that for some reason there was no after fight drugs or medical tests done in this fight.

Also Panama Lewis is a VERY controvertial trainer, bit more on him in this recent interview from The sweetscience.

Boxing collects black eyes the way a philatelist collects stamps. Yet the world would have us believe that in the collective known as sport, boxing is a slut among pristine virgins. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Basketball has tattooed cross-dressers. Baseball has pathological gamblers. Football has murderers. They break necks in hockey.

In the midst of so much mayhem, boxing doesn’t look that bad.

One of the times boxing looked bad was on June 16, 1983. That was the night up-and-coming welterweight Billy Collins Jr. fought journeyman Luis Resto in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Collins was seconded by his father and trainer Billy Collins Sr. Resto had Panama Lewis in his corner.

To the surprise of almost everyone, Resto beat Collins to within an inch of his life. The formerly good-looking prospect was a ruined man. After the fight, a suspicious Billy Collins Sr. asked that Resto’s gloves be impounded as evidence. The NYPD determined that the gloves had been tampered with. Most of the horsehair padding had been removed before the fight.

Lewis and Resto were tried, convicted and sentenced for assault, conspiracy, and possession of a deadly weapon. Resto served two years. Lewis did one. Panama Lewis was banned for life from the sport of boxing in the United States. Billy Collins died a year after the fight, drunk and despondent behind the wheel of a speeding car.

The boxing trainer Panama Lewis was born Carlos Humberto Lewis in the Panama Canal Zone and has been fighting forever.

“I was an amateur fighter in Panama and then I turned pro,” Lewis tells me. “I started off boxing in 1960, 118 pounds, bantamweight. I had twenty amateur fights, only lost once. Then I went to professional and I only lost once there too. I went into the U.S. Army in 1969 and got out in ‘71. I’m a disabled veteran. I met Eddie Gregory, known as Eddie Mustafa, and I hooked up with his trainer, Chickie Ferrara, and he taught me a lot. I met Mr. Ray Arcel in 1971.”

Ray Arcel was to pugilists what Siegfried and Roy were to big cats.

“I went on with Mr. Ray Arcel and I went on with Mr. Freddie Brown, because they both used to work together and they was training Roberto Duran. I have to give all blessing to God,” Lewis declares. “And the next man I have to give blessing to is Roberto Duran, because if it wasn’t for Roberto Duran, there wouldn’t be no Panama Lewis. He gave me the opportunity to work in the corner as the fourth man, to translate, and with that I learned. Plus I’m gifted to see things and move on. I’m a fast thinker. I’m a good motivator. The only man who could top me with that was a man named, God bless him, Bundini Brown.”

Drew “Bundini” Brown was the mirror in Ali’s corner who cast his good spell on Ali and his bad spell on Ali’s opponents.

“I knew Roberto Duran in Panama. I was in the family,” continues Lewis. “I was part of Duran’s family.”

I mention that Roberto Duran, in my opinion, was one of the greatest lightweights in history.

“Not one of them,” Lewis says. “He’s the only great lightweight champion whoever put his foot on the planet.”

I ask if he thinks Duran was better than Benny Leonard.

Panama Lewis smiles. “You know greatness when you see it,” he says. “Like when I had Aaron Pryor. He was the best 140-pounder ever done it. So I’m blessed to work with good fighters. I work with Mike McCallum. I work with Livingstone Bramble. I work with Camacho Sr. I had a chance also to train Michael Nunn. I gave him four defenses. I made Vito Antuofermo world champion. I did that. I can go on and on today with you naming great fighters, but all that’s saying is that you have to have a blessing from God. I am blessed with boxing. Even though they took away what I’m supposed to have - you understand? - I’ll get it back because they can’t stop that.”

There’s an old adage which says a trainer is only as good as his fighter. I ask Panama Lewis if that is true.

“I’ll put it this way,” he replies. “The trainer gotta be a teacher, to teach the fighter to show his greatness. But if you work with that fighter and the fighter look bad, you can look bad at the trainer. So is a double-whammy here. The trainer makes the fighter and the fighter makes the trainer, in a sense.”

Although Panama was born in Panama, he was a classic New York gym rat.

“I started off in the 149th and Third Avenue, Bobby Gleason’s Gym. That’s where I really started off,” Lewis says. “Then I went by a little gym over here, got to Stillman’s, traveled around to get boxing. I’m from the old school. But what I do, I mix the old school with the new school. You cannot bring the old school without mixing it with the new school. I don’t believe in a fighter leaving everything up to lifting weight. I don’t wanna hear what his strengthening coach gotta say. Back in the old days you go and rake grass, you chop trees down, you work hard in the gym and you spar. That weightlifting thing don’t work for every fighter. It works for some fighter, but not a skillful fighter.”

I ask Lewis to elaborate.

“You may have muscles,” the trainer says, “but muscles don’t win fights. The brain wins fights. That’s why a lot of fighter’s careers end up quick, because they’re not thinking fighters. Then you be talking with your tongue heavy. Know what I’m saying? This thing kills. But boxing is an art. Once you learn the art, you can go places. And you have to live clean. In a sense, that’s why George Foreman could a came back and did what he did. A lot of these fighters trying to do that, and they’re gonna get hurt, because they didn’t live the life George Foreman lived. I don’t think Holyfield is finished. I think he could fight still, but he can’t beat no great fighter or no young guy. He’s gotta look for somebody old like himself. I can’t speak for him, but if I was him, in his shoes, with the money he made, I wouldn’t be in the game today.”

Everyone agrees - everyone, that is, except Evander - that Holyfield should call it a day. I ask Lewis why he thinks the Real Deal - or any other fighter, for that matter, who fights past his prime - resists hanging ‘em up.

“What they miss is when they cross the street and people say: Here comes the champion. When you retire you don’t hear that. They miss that spotlight. They miss that crowd. They live for that. That is a big high for them.”

That may be a big high for them, but it can be a big low for the rest of us.

“He shouldn’t have fought no Larry Donald. I wouldn’t fight Larry Donald,” Panama Lewis says, “because he’s a stinker. He runs. He grabs. And if you beat Larry Donald you’re going nowhere. All you do is look stupid, like he did in the fight. So he fought the wrong fighter.”

Is there a top-ten fighter Holyfield can beat? What about WBO champ Lamon Brewster?

Panama Lewis makes a face: “Brewster is a champion because Wladimir Klitschko got no heart.”

Team Klitschko had several explanations for Wlad’s poor performance that night, blaming it on everything from Vaseline on the legs to poison in the water bottle.

“No, no, listen to me,” Lewis says excitedly. “Excuses. You’ve gotta bring heart to the game. He’s in condition, but he can’t take it, and he quit, gave up. There ain’t no excuses. So he should get out before he gets hurt. But he ain’t going to do it, because of the money they’re giving him. The brother, Vitali, at least comes to fight.”

Vitali Klitschko’s last fight was his demolition of Danny Williams.

“Danny Williams became famous because Mr. Mike Tyson’s leg got messed up. Trust me, if it weren’t for the leg, you wouldn’t be hearing no Danny Williams fighting no Klitschko. But things happen in the game when you’re thirty-eight. You leave the dressing room good, you try in that ring, and all the sudden your body go ‘whoop’ because of your age. I don’t wanna dog his victory,” Lewis says. “He beat Tyson because Tyson wasn’t Tyson that night. If the leg was good - you seen the fight - you know Williams wasn’t going no three, four rounds with Tyson.”

Panama Lewis has done it all, the good, the bad and the ugly. Under the circumstances, I wonder if he has mixed feelings about the sweet science.

“I’ve been in it for the last thirty-eight years and it’s all I know to do,” he says. “This is a blessing God gave me. That’s why nobody can take away what God gave me: the knowledge of the game. And I’m blessed in motivation. I could take a bad fighter and make him a good fighter, because I’m a teacher. There are few teachers left in the game, very few teachers left in the game, and I’m fortunate to be one of them.”

Panama Lewis, despite the odds, is standing at the final bell.

“You know what keep me grounded?” he asks. “That keep me going? A man named Jesus Christ. God keep me going. The bible keep me strong. Everybody in this world, except God, commits sins - understand? - Even the President of the United States. So who am I to talk? When they talk about me, I feel good because I’m still important. ‘Oh, Panama Lewis, he’s the one . . . ’ That make me famous still. When I don’t hear about Panama Lewis, then I worry. God gave me the gift to motivate. God gave me the gift to be a teacher in boxing. Not a trainer, a teacher. So that’s why good fighters come to me - because they want to learn how to fight. Being a trainer is more than putting on a towel and tell a man to give me three rounds, give me four rounds, give me five rounds. No. You got to teach your fighters. That’s what I’m gifted with. They can’t take that away from me.”

Seamus · Post by **Seamus** » 23 Oct 2005, 12:27

The Collins disaster occured on the same card that Duran thumbed Davy Moore. I'm not positive, but I don't think Billy Collins committed suicide, I believe with his career over he began drinking heavily, and if I remember correctly he died in a drunken car crash. In his fight with Resto, he said he felt like he was being hit with ashtrays, and at the end of the bout his father rushed over and grabbed Resto's gloves and wouldn't let go until fight officials could see them. I know hindsight is always 20-20, but seriously, why didn't Collins inform the referee early in the fight that something was seriously wrong.

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 23 Oct 2005, 12:42

An interview with Resto from about 5 years ago.

http://www.boxing-monthly.co.uk/content/0003/two.htm

If you could meet any fighter in history and.......?????

If you could meet any fighter in history and.......?????

asking boxers

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